St Etienne / Foxbase Alpha vinyl box

St Etienne will release a special 25th anniversary vinyl box set of their 1991 debut album Foxbase Alpha in January next year.
The box set will be presented as a triple vinyl collection and includes Foxbase Alpha remastered and cut at 45RPM over two records and Remains Of The Day, a bonus album (33RPM) of associated recordings from the era, most of which are new to the vinyl format.

This box will also include a special one sided seven-inch single featuring a previously unreleased demo of Moria Lambert (vocalist for Only Love Can Break Your Heart) singing over a radically different version of Kiss And Make Up, a large format (12″ x 12″) 28-page book and “assorted inserts”, including band photos, original press releases and Foxbase trading cards.

If you just fancy picking up the original album on vinyl without the box set malarkey, then Heavenly are reissuing it straight, as an exact replica of the original UK pressing. This is the first time it has been issued on vinyl since the original release.

The 2CD deluxe edition is also re-available again This comprises the original album plus a disc of 14 associated recordings from the era.

Recalling the constraints on making the album Bob Stanley recalls, “me and Pete were working on a budget made up of our savings. Heavenly was in similar straits. I think it cost about £4,000 in the end, but that was about a year’s worth of recordings…. Once me and Pete started to record we used to buy ‘Loot’ and look for old synths and keyboards – a Roland Jupiter (knackered), a Prophet 5 (great), a Crumar Performer (I don’t think we ever got it to work so we disemboweled it). Everything was recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder with an eight-track mixing desk. If we weren’t happy with a song after a couple of days, we’d move on to something new.”

The box set is limited to 2,000 units everything within is exclusive and won’t be made available anywhere else. It will come with a download card. It can be pre-ordered direct from the band’s website from Thursday 27 October, although SDE understands it will be also available via other channels at some point.

The official release date for the box set is 13 January 2017 but the standard vinyl and two-CD deluxe edition are out at the end of this week (see below).

I’m sure I read somewhere yesterday (but I can’t find it again!) that all the Universal 2cd editions will be progressively reissued through PIAS following this one. Good for collectors who missed them or don’t want to pay the inflated prices being sought now for some of them. I’m alright, Jack – I won most of them in a Universal competition a couple of years ago (*smugface*)

I was under the impression the 2CD editions were coming around again but couldn’t find the details and started to think it was maybe just vinyl re-issues. I’m only missing ‘Tales…’ so will be glad to pick that up at a normal price.

I feel we’ve been celebrating Foxbase Alpha for 5 years now, oh wait we have. This is called ringing the album out to dry. It’s a nice looking box set for die hard fans but in-essential in my view. The 7″ with exclusive demo isn’t going to make me fork out another £50+ postage for an album I’ve already got. Worse, the CD is just a re-press of a re-issue that is already freely available. Lazy town. They could have added the Foxbase Beta CD or something.

I don’t understand this as a criticism. They are artists who make money via their art. If the opportunity comes to make more money via the art they have done in the past, thereby financing their ability to continue to make new art, then why would they not take it? If I had missed out on the initial round of CD re-issues, I would be ecstatic to know that I have an opportunity to pick it up at a “regular” price once again. For once, this is an artist reissuing a previously available deluxe version without adding something “new” to it to incentivize “yet one more purchase,” so why is this considered a cash in?

Yeah, what Carlton said. I have been itching to get these but the previous sets were $60 a piece in the US, glad they are coming back out cheaper. Anyone complaining can simply refrain from buying them.

I wish A Certain Ratio could get a comprehensive reissue as well. Their reissues are sporadic, expensive and usually out of print in seconds.

Sarah Cracknell’s ‘Kites’ 10″ is worth picking up, but again it’s yet another limited edition and it’s sold out. I can not understand making music ‘limited edition’ – why deny your fans the opportunity to own and listen to your music.

I’d go along with this – It might suit the two or three thousand who snap up the limited edition stock most always on the day of release (feeding the eBay flippers) but it just alienates thousands more. There are many, many more fans of St Etienne’s music than that so it seems perverse to pander to a minority by strangling availability with these LEs.

Music should be made as widely available as possible, not be curated like limited edition artist prints. That’s another way of saying I’d like to see Boxette repressed (a copy now on eBay for several hundred pounds!) or is preserving the “I’ve got it and you haven’t” feelings of the 2000 more important?

Tom – “re-available” means we’re keeping it available on a new label, after our deal with Universal expired, and we thought that was better than deleting them. We didn’t add anything because that would have been unfair to people who already bought the Universal deluxes. Yes, we’ll be making all the Universal deluxes “re-available” so that people can buy them for a tenner instead of paying silly money on ebay.

Steve – We do have a habit of bringing out exclusives just before Christmas, you’re right, because we think people might want them as Christmas presents. Unfortunately the artwork took too long to finish and we’ve missed the boat this year.

Kiki, Stevie B – it’s the first time the vinyl has been available for 25 years (aside from the semi-bootleg job on Plain), it’ll sound better than it ever has at 45rpm, and the tracks on the bonus album have mostly never been on vinyl before.

Just to add to Bob’s comment, for people like me who first (and last) bought the CD second-hand in 2000, fifty quid for a massive boxset of stuff I’ve never heard is a great deal. Not everyone has heard all this stuff before. I was 12 when the album came out.

I completely understand the point about timing releases for Christmas and of course, last year one of the releases was the Christmas LP.

From a personal view, it’s just a little harder to justify the expense when wallets are already being squeezed. Nevertheless, I’m sure it’s a lovely set, I am very excited about the 7″ and if I can find a way to afford it, I’m sure I will.

I’m excited for re-releases of the other deluxe 2cd sets – somehow I missed these when they were first released. I found the first two albums for fairly affordable prices, but after paying $40 for Finisterre and $80 for Continental, I decided I couldn’t keep that up and still need to find Tiger Bay, Good Humor and Sound of Water.

I’d personally love to read an actual interview with Bob, and get his thoughts on reissues/box-sets/deluxe editions in general. You can tell from everything to do with Saint Etienne that they are massive music fans and collectors themselves, it would be really interesting to read his opinions on such matters.

Go on Paul, please make it happen :-)

The original deluxe editions of the Saint Etienne albums were ace and i’m glad to say i’ve got the complete collection already. It’s nice that they are being made available again at decent prices for everyone, as some of them are very hard to get now and go for silly money on ebay etc.

Not sure there’s much milking going on here…reissuing a product so it stays on the shop shelf at a resonsble price …..and a very limited vinyl box set to addresse the fan and collector ,if your a fan of the album and vinyl this is a really cool set and a standard vinyl release the first time in years ….if this is milk then make mine a pint …with strewberry nesquick…!

As usual, some complaining, that was great that Bob Stanley dropped in and said his peace on the matter. : )
You never know who’s reading these forums, especially popular ones like this.
I too have all the 2 cd DE’s that came out back when, and since I don’t “do” vinyl anymore, I’ll have to pass on this box but dang it looks sweet. I’d like a look at that 28 page book, though.

By the way, Bob, if you’re still reading – I vote that you DON’T repress Boxette or any other of the fan club cd’s please – it would make them a bit less special somehow imho. And actually, Boxette WAS a repress of all the fan club singles and albums together in one beautiful package. I consider it to some of the band’s best work!